So, guess what? I just got back from a week-long meditation retreat with his majesty, Deepak Chopra. While staying at the La Costa Resort and Spa (where the Chopra Center is located), however, I got a massage. This set me back $160, but I wanted to see how it rates compared to the average rubdown at half that price.

The spa at La Costa is an experience in sensual awareness. The sprawling grounds are dotted with villas, a sundries store, the Chopra Center, and an Internet cafe with pricey sandwiches. A 10-foot fountain cascades right outside the spa entrance. The spa’s boutique greets visitors at the entrance. Yoga clothing, balms, and hair products strewn throughout the intimate room of ornate woods and turquoise tiles catch the eye from the outside, and are available to anyone passing by. The boutique is also the waiting area for treatments.

The spa attendant took me inside and offered me the requisite plush white robe. I toured the ladies locker area, which lacks for nothing, with its steam room, massive jetted tub, sauna, brushes combs, blow dryer, and even curling irons. The spa grounds included another whirlpool tub, gardens of rosemary, basil, and spearmint, and even a small reflexology labyrinth, which was piercingly painful on my feet. But all of these ambiance enhancers are designed to justify the $160 cost, because the massage alone will not.

On a scale of one to ten, I’d give the 50-minute vanilla, cardamom, avocado massage a six. It felt routine and formulaic, and when I asked for her to go a bit deeper, she did, for about five minutes, and then slipped back into a light-to-medium reverie. The massages I receive at the Massage Envy in Santa Fe put this one to shame, at less than half the cost. I did not have time, or funds, to sample any of the other treatments, since the meditation retreat involved 12-hour days of ohm-ing, stretching, eating, and listening to lectures on the neuroscience of meditation.

Today’s Tip

Before booking a massage, consider whether the treatment justifies the cost. At some resorts, only those booking a treatment have access to the swimming pool, whirlpool, steam room, sauna, and other cushy amenities. If you want to spend the day indulging in these luxuriances and don’t want to spend a lot of money, book the least expensive treatment—usually a manicure or pedicure—and spend the day using the facilities.